MIDHAT AJANOVIĆ AYAN

Writer, cartoonist, film maker and theoretician of animation, born in Sarajevo (Bosnia) in 1959. He studied journalism in Sarajevo and practiced film animation in Zagreb film Studio of Animation (Croatia). He was a director of seven animated short films Between 1984 and 1992. After a pause of 18 years he returned to practical film-making with animated short Point of Mouth.

Since 1994 he is living in Gothenburg (Sweden) where he obtained a degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Film Studies. He teaches history and theory of animation at various Swedish film schools (currently at University West in Trollhättan).

He has published many books in various genres and in several languages. Some of them deal with history and theory of animated film. His most recent books are Den rörliga skämtteckningen (Optimal Press, Gothenburg, 2009) in Swedish, Karikatura i pokret (Hrvatski filmski savez, Zagreb, 2008) and Animacija i realizam / Animation and Realism (Hrvatski filmski savez, Zagreb, 2004) in Croatian, Animazione e relismo (Animation and Realism”, Cuem, Milan, 2006) in Italian.

He worked as the organiser and artistic director of the festivals in Podgorica (Montenegro), Zagreb (Croatia) and Eksjö (Sweden) and was the member of many internationally juries.

He also did some work in the field of literature, journalism and newspaper’s cartoons. For his work, he got various rewards at significant festivals and exhibition world-wide. Most recent, the international festival of animated film "Animafest 2010" in Zagreb awarded him with the special prize for the contribution in the fileld of animation researches.
 

GEORGE SIFIANOS

George Sifianos was born in 1952 in Greece. He gained his PhD in 1988, from the University of Paris 1, Pantheon – Sorbonne, on thesis titled: "Language and aesthetics of the animation cinema". As an animator he participated in a number of projects including Tales Of The Night by Michel Ocelot, two films Adventures Of Tutu by Pascal Dalet, Alice by Nicolas Bellanger (won several prizes), Pedro by Igor Leon (Prize of the UESCA), the Equilibrance advertisement and others.

His filmography as an author includes four short animated films Smile (1974), Scent Of City (1994), Tutu (2001), C'est Môa (2007) and a full-length documentary Petrochemicals, The Cathedrals Of The Desert (1981). His films have been screened at many film festivals world wide, Mostra of Venice, Annecy, Zagreb, Montreal, Melbourne, and Stuttgart, to mention some of them. A retrospective of his films was shown at ANIMFEST festival in Athens, 2008.

Sifianos is a founder (in 1994) and coordinator (1994-2006) of the Studies in the Cinema ofAnimation, at ENSAD (Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs) in Paris. From 1994 to the present, he has been a professor at ENSAD. Sifianos has been a very active member of the international animation community as a member of selection committees or juries of the significant number of the festivals: Festival of the Cinema of Animation of Antibes Juan-le-Pins (1985), International Festival of the Cinema of Animation of Zagreb (1994), Espinho (1998), Casteli Animati (2003), CICDAF in China (2005), the International Animation Festival of Hiroshima (2006), Balkanima in Belgrade (2006), KAFF in Hungary (2007), ANIM’EST of Romania (2008), ITFS Stuttgart Festival (2009) FICAM Meknes (2010) and many others.

He is a Member of Board of the International Festival of the Cinema of Animation of Annecy, and founding member of CARTOON (European Association of Animated films), “Animation Campus“ FOCAL, Switzerland and several more associations and foundations. Sifianos is also experienced in the field of visual arts, participating in exhibitions in France and abroad. Since 1980, many of his articles concerning the art of animation have been published in magazines and journals. "Looking for a Cinema close to the mental representations” and “The symphony of the Parthenon frieze” are the titles of his researching projects in progress.
 
 

NEBOJŠA POPOVIĆ

Born in Kraljevo in 1958. Graduated from the Faculty of Philology in Belgrade in 1981. Since 1982, he has worked for the Ratio Television of Serbia, former TV Belgrade, and for the past 25 years has been actively contributing articles and writings about film. In 1993, Nebojša was awarded the ’Golden Seal’ annual award of the Film Institute for the best film review.

Apart from contributing film reviews for the ’Metropolis’ magazine, he has worked as a reporter at numerous major film festivals, and for a number of years now the national television – RTS – has been featuring his programme ’Drugi vek’ (’Another Century’), dealing with film phenomena (meta – films as a genre and manner of expression, Serbian film debutants, Hamlet in films, football and film, Serbian film critics …), as well as important figures and phenomena at the world film scene (Wim Wenders, Ken Loach, Ken Russell, Hermano Olmi, Phillip Noyce, Costa Gavras, Andrzej Zulavski, Istvan Szabo, Lena Endre, Pupi Avatti, Rajko Grlić...) and national cinematography (Srdjan Karanović,Dejan Zečević, Boris Mitić, Rade Vladić, Svetozar Cvetković, Slobodan Šijan, Nebojša Glogovac, Mirjana Karanović, Petar Božović, Branka Čeperac, Gordan Mihić, Miljen Kljaković...).

A part of the serial is dedicated to European cinematographies (Israel, Norway, Finland, Russia, Spain, Hungary, Iceland, Slovenia, Holland ...). Nebojša has been a member of the official juries and film critic juries at national and international film festivals, as well a selector of around twenty festivals dedicated to significant European cinematographies. 

MILOŠ TOMIĆ

Miloš tomić was born on 05.02.1976. in Belgrade. During high school he went to "Kvadrat" film school run by Zoran and Svetlana Popović. He was a contributor of the "Beautiful Rhythm of the Heart" radio show, 1993 - 2002. Graduated at the Academy of Art (Directing major) in 2001. in the class of Miša Radivojević. He was a guest student in Madrid and Berlin. Finished graduate studies of animation in Prague, at Famu, in the class of Petar Skala. Currently at the doctoral studies, thesis on "Preciousness of discarded objects, i.e. trash as the material for film, photography..."

His films and music videos MOTHER’S LITERATURE, SKIRTER, CLAY PIGEON, HAIRS, SPITTED BY KISS, PLASTIC BAGS, STRONG AGAIN, SUPPORT IS IMPORTANT, MUD, INDIVIDUAL were multiply awarded at the film events and festivals in Serbia and abroad (Prague, Karlovy Vary, Bratislava, Ljubljana, Athens, Barcelona, Milan, Petersburg...). More at www.milostomic.com www.milostomic.com

MARKO STOJANOVIĆ

Marko Stojanović was born in 1978 in Leskovac, where he still lives and works as a high-school EFL teacher. Marko has been in charge of the Leskovac comic art school, “Nikola Mitrović Kokan”, together with Srđan Nikolić-Peka. He is a cartoon author himself and a translator of comic books (Hellboy, Hardboiled, Raptors, Sky Doll).

Marko is the author of scenarios for a number of comic books: Maks Debris, Crne duše, Postelja od gloga, Rekvijem, Pasiji životi, Prah, Pepeo, Bajka i druge istine, Le Dico des Hommes, Le Dico des Femmes, Les 69 secrets à savoir sur les Femmes, Les 69 secrets à savoir sur les Hommes and the series entitled Vekovnici (published by the renowned ‘Politikin Zabavnik’).

He is one of the administrators of the UPPS website (www.upps-sajt.com), where his weekly column fittingly entitled ‘Southern Comfort’ has been appearing for eight years now, including the period when it was published at the Internet weekly comic news (‘Strip Vesti’). His other accomplishments include a collection of essays on comic art also entitled ‘Southern Comfort’ (“Južnjačka Uteha”), published by the Cultural Centre in Niš. He is also engaged as the editor-in-chief of the Niš-based comic magazine Strip Pressing, as well as the editor of the comic in the magazine Think Tank from Leskovac. Stojanović was the initator and co-organiser of the Balkan Festival of young comic art authors, as the oldest comic art festival in the region of former SFR Yugoslavia.

His texts and comics have been published in a number of magazine in Serbia and abroad. Stojanović is the winner of a number of prizes and awards, including: best young Balkan artists in the domain of comic art theory, in 2007, best script writer at 6. International Comic Art Salon in Belgrade in 2005, Grand Prix of the Seventh International Comic Art Salon in Veles (together with the cartoon artist Srđan Nikolić-Peka), in 2009. 

IVAN ARANĐELOVIĆ

Ivan Aranđelović (born 1979), producer and journalist, graduated from the Faculty of Drama Arts (FDU) in Belgrade, at the Department of Film and Television Production. His took his first steps in journalism as a high-school student on Vrnjačka Banja, and he continued as a journalist in Belgrade, working for the radio stations ’Akademac’, ’City’ ’Idea’ and ’Index’, where he produced several programmes about film. A former journalist of the ’Film’ magazine and a collaborator of the ’Sat TV Video / Film Reporter’ for several years, since 2005 he has been working as a film journalist for the daily newspaper ’Politika’. During the studies, he worked as a PR manager for the distribution house ‘Bandur Film’ and he also worked as the executive producer for the Film Scenario Festival in Vrnjačka Banja. Since 2008, Ivan has been a member of the Organisational Board of the European Film Festival at Palić. He is involved in the production and organisational aspects of several festivals in the country and the wider region.